What ECL for a race with +4 to every ability score?

[JPL]

Well depending on whether he is using one of the expanded campaign settings, like Urban Arcana, he could very well be using plenty of magic.

That said, d20 Modern lifts the restrictions on muticlassing. That kinda changes the value of +4 to all stats, since it is much easier to take a level in all the classes, getting their best Talent which will benefit from a high stat, and move on to an advanced and/or prestige class. Not sure how that would impact an ECL analysis.

Hi, Mistwell. How ya doing?

I'm thinking this will be a no-magic campaign. Plenty of Warren Ellis/Grant Morrison-inspired sci-fi elements, though. Wold Newton meets Dark Matter, with a sprinkle of Joseph Campbell.

Underneath the two-fisted guns-blazing challenging of the unknown, there are conspiracies both ancient and contemporary at work.

I need a name for these guys...a web search gave me "Anchitheos" [Ancient Greek for "demigod" or "godlike"], but that doesn't really roll off the tongue. It does tie in neatly to my idea that a classically-educated Victorian naturalist was the first to advance the theory that Great Men were actually biologically different from the rest of us.

Spatz, excellent points. I'd been thinking about adding a few more bonuses, like immunity [or strong resistance] to disease and increased speed and faster healing. Points to ponder...

The slow aging might not do much for the PCs in game terms, but it's great for NPCs. It means that all the pulp-era heroes are still out there, pushing 100 but feeling late sixties. The Oriental mastermind that Sax Rhomer called Fu Manchu is still alive, as is a certain criminal mastermind who gained noteriety in Victorian London. They're all 20th level, and they have had a century to get more evil...

 

[DM_Matt]

The class fairness issue really is a problem.

You should either give them Hero Levels (to spend on stats OR other things) and let them start with a few class levels OR just give them a really big point buy.

The latter is only a problem if you use the CR and XP system as-is (which I get the impression most people don't), since the PCs will all be more or less balanced reletive to eachother.

 

[Mistwell]

Why not just go with Nietzsche's "Overman" or "Overmen" for a name?

In Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche, through Zarathustra, says "I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome [surpassed]. What have you done to overcome [surpass] him? All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment... (Towards the Ubermensch)"

 

[JPL]

Why not just go with Nietzsche's "Overman" or "Overmen" for a name?

In Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche, through Zarathustra, says "I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome [surpassed]. What have you done to overcome [surpass] him? All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment... (Towards the Ubermensch)"

I thought about that, but I was worried that "Overman" had become too closely associated with Aryan supremacy.

Still...it has a nice ring, doesn't it?

I really want this setting to have Nazis, though, still chasing after that Aryan ideal [and frustrated that the lower races keep producing overmen of their own]. Maybe one faction of old-school white supremists [in their hidden Nazi superfortresses, deep in the Brazilian rain forest], and another faction who now believe that overmen, whatever their ancestry, are the true master race. Sorta like Magneto.

 

[Grog]

The class fairness issue really is a problem.

You should either give them Hero Levels (to spend on stats OR other things) and let them start with a few class levels OR just give them a really big point buy.

The latter is only a problem if you use the CR and XP system as-is (which I get the impression most people don't), since the PCs will all be more or less balanced reletive to eachother.

That's a good idea. Just give them a really big point buy and treat them as one or two levels higher for the purpose of awarding XP. You'll have to toughen up the encounters anyway, so it should all balance out.

 

[JPL]

If I did the Really Big Point Buy, I'd want to set a minimum ability score of at least 12...maybe higher...to make sure that each of these guys is above-average in every respect [rather than having the usual dump stats].

This will hopefully have the side effect of encouraging players to play Renaissance men. These guys stand out not just because they are incredibly gifted in one area [and starting with a 19 in one ability certainly qualifies], but also because they have the potential to excel at any field of endeavor. I'd love to see some real Buckaroo Banzai backgrounds here --- the Green Beret turned anthropologist, the physicist with a black belt in aikido, the geologist who scaled Everest at nineteen...

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

The secondary benefit of bonuses to all ability scores is the ability to spend almost nothing in your dump stats and still have decent scores-- allowing you to pump your good stats even higher.

My usual example for this is the Half-Celestial Anthropomorphic Wolverine, Paladin/Monk/Sacred Fist. The ability boosts to Wisdom and Charisma are the real bread and butter-- but even with the highest point buy, there's almost no reason to put any points in Constitution, since you get a +12 bonus. With the standard 8 starting point, you get a 20.